McCarthy said: “From two weeks of images of the waxing moon, I took the section of the picture that has the most contrast (right before the lunar terminator where shadows are the longest), aligned and blended them to show the rich texture across the entire surface.

“This was exhausting to say the least, namely because the moon doesn’t line up day over day, so each image had to be mapped to a 3D sphere and adjusted to make sure each image aligned.”

These shadows make the moon’s surface clearer and features like craters more discernible. (SWNS)

The sun is closer to the horizon in the terminator, creating long shadows that give the surface a three-dimensional appearance.